The Gary Null ShowGary takes on the real issues that the mainstream media is afraid to tackle. Tune in to find out the latest about health news, healing, politics, and the economy.

A look at the transition and fundamental change in the transition of power in Saudi Arabia and current US-Saudi relations.

Ali al-Ahmed is a Saudi scholar and writer who is an expert in Saudi Arabia's political affairs including the history of the Saudi royal family, Islamic movements and Wahhabism, Saudi-American foreign relations and the repressive social and political conditions in the Kingdom. He is founder and current director at the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington DC, a nonpartisan institution that analyzes the political climate throughout the Gulf region. Ali has been an invited speaker at Princeton, Amnesty International, the Hudson Institute and other institutions, and has also consulted for CBS, CNN, PBS, Fox and other major news outlets. He holds a degree in journalism and an MA in international finance from Saint Thomas University in Minnesota. The Institute's website is GulfInstitute.org

Dr. Peter Breggin has been called the “conscience of psychiatry” during his outstanding career to reform the mental health field. Dr. Breggin is a Harvard trained psychiatrist and a former consultant for the National Institutes of Mental Health. He is one of our nation's most important critics of the current conventional psychotherapeutic approaches in treating mental disorders in both adults and children, particularly the epidemic use of psychoactive drugs. Along with his wife, he is the founder of the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, a non profit organization providing scientific-based information on dangers and adverse effects of psychiatric drugs. Dr. Breggin has written many important and award winning books. Especially notable are "Medication Madness" and his later “Guilt, Shame and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions” Peter also hosts a radio broadcast -- “Dr. Peter Breggin Hour” -- every Wednesday at 4:00 pm eastern time on the Progressive Radio Network. His website is Breggin.com

Jose Luis Granados Ceja (Say-ya) is an investigative journalist, writer and photojournalist based in Mexico City. He was previously a staff writer for the pan-Latin American TeleSUR media firm headquartered in Venezuela. He is now a freelance writer focusing on contemporary political issues, especially on social and labor movements in Latin American. Recently Jose Luis was on the ground in Southern Mexico covering the Honduran caravans migrating north through Mexico and ultimately the US.

GMOs: The Lie that Won’t Go Away

GMOs: The Lie that Won’t Go Away

Richard Gale and Gary Null

Progressive Radio Network, October 25, 2018

Recent news on the GMO front includes a harsh warning to consumers who purchase genetically engineered produce and products containing GMOs. The ruling by a San Francisco court in favor of Dewayne Johnson, a groundskeeper with cancer, against Monsanto has set a precedent for cases against the agro-chemical industry. In effect, the jury’s ruling means that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (glyphosate) is now legally recognized as a health hazard and a carcinogen. Approximately 8,000 other victims of Monsanto’s Roundup are now lining up to sue the biotech firm, now owned by the German agro-chemical giant Bayer.

Although this is great news for consumers, the Trump administration is deaf, blind and dumb to GMOs’ environmental hazards and severe health risks and has been aggressively promoting the dumping of more toxins on Americans. In April 2017, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate “unnecessary regulations” that would hinder the economic growth of the largest agro-chemical corporations. This means a faster approval process for new biotech crops and pesticides. Trump has surrounded himself, not only with Wall Street stooges, but with shills for the agricultural industry. He has met privately with the heads of Bayer and Monsanto.[1] But Trump and his GOP minions are not content with advancing Bayer-Monsanto’s interests in the US. During a Congressional House Science Committee last February, the GOP took up the industry’s cause and threatened to cut off funding to the World Health Organization for labeling Monsanto’s glyphosate as a carcinogen.[2] What the majority of our legislators repeatedly ignore and deny is the hard science behind the GMO myth.

The influenza season is again upon us and the CDC’s blitzkrieg of fear tactics to compel every citizen to rush to their doctors, hospitals or pharmacies to get vaccinated is underway. We have witnessed this ritual many times before. It is has become an annual ritual for the world’s most heavily vaccinated population. Mainstream media outlets blast us with stories of the first influenza deaths and images of smiling children getting vaccinated. And this pageantry will continue for the next several months. The government has a lot of vaccines to get rid of and they can thank the media for doing their advertising for them.

However, popular attitudes towards the value of the influenza vaccine have been increasingly waning. For the reason, we can expect the propaganda to be particularly fierce this year. The vaccine’s track record has not fared well in the past. Consistently it fails to meet the medical establishment’s promises. This is no surprise. Quite simply, influenza vaccines are horrible, ineffective drugs.

We can look back through the years and easily assess clear evidence for why more and more people are skeptical about seasonal flu vaccination. Research indicates that during the fake swine flu scare in 2009, Glaxo’s Pandermrix flu vaccine was associated with a 1400% increase in narcolepsy risk, “an incurable, debilitating condition” associated with acute brain damage.[1]. A team of Finnish scientists at Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare, recorded 800 cases of narcolepsy associated with this vaccine. Vaccine ingredients other than the engineered viral antigen are most often believed to be the primary culprits to adverse vaccine reactions. The Finnish research, on the other hand, indicated that the vaccine’s altered viral nucleotide likely contributed to the sudden rise in sleeping sickness.[2]

Although Pandermrix was pulled from the market, it should never have been approved and released in the first place. This is a classic case of regulatory negligence by health officials and the WHO which promulgates flu vaccines around the world. Like all vaccines, which are now commonly fast tracked through government health regulatory bodies for rapid release upon the public, it should have been tested more thoroughly and more rigorously reviewed.

Since the time of Edward Jenner’s primitive inoculation experiments to combat smallpox, and its countless aftermath of deaths throughout the 19th century, modern vaccine science has failed to learn its lessons. The British government has paid out over 63 million pounds to cover lawsuits to Pandermrix victims. Glaxo has never admitted its flu vaccine caused brain damage.[3]

This year’s influenza vaccines will be different. For the first time Sanofi will launch its Flublok on the public. This vaccine does not require the culturing of the virus in chicken egg medium. Instead, it is a genetically modified with baculovirus grown in caterpillar cells; A second new shot is Seqirus’ Flucelvax that is grown on canine kidney cells. However these will only be given to those 18 years and 4 years and older respectively. One hopeful change is that 80% of the vaccines will be mercury-free for the 2018-2019 season.[4]

Today tens of thousands of infants, toddlers, children and adults around the world are increasingly becoming victims of vaccine injuries. No national debate is initiated because regulatory malfeasance within federal health agencies has aligned its interests with pharmaceutical profits rather than serving the public health. And we are repeatedly told the flu vaccine is completely safe and severe adverse effects are rare. But by what standard is rarity determined? Jeremy Hammond notes that in Australia, one out of a hundred children experienced fever-induced seizures from the 2009-2010 flu vaccine.[5] And even if serious adverse effects of 1 in 100 is regarded rare, health agencies undermine risk in order to meet vaccination compliance.

Similar to the vaccine for human papillomavirus or HPV, flu vaccines are among the least effective vaccines on the market. An updated review of the vaccine conducted by the prestigious Cochrane Database Collaboration concluded that their findings should “discourage the utilization of vaccination against influenza in healthy adults as a routine public health measure.”[6] Repeatedly we are told by health officials that the moral argument for its continued use is for “the greater good,” although this imaginary good has never been defined scientifically.

According to Dr. Tom Jefferson at the Cochrane Collaboration, it makes little sense to keep vaccinating against seasonal influenza based on the evidence.[7] Jefferson has also endorsed more cost-effective and scientifically-proven means of minimizing the transmission of flu, including regular hand washing and wearing masks. There is also substantial peer-reviewed literature supporting the supplementation of Vitamin D.

Dr. Jefferson’s conclusions are backed by a 2013 article by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine scientist Peter Doshi, PhD, in the British Journal of Medicine. In his article Doshi questions the flu vaccine paradigm stating:

“Closer examination of influenza vaccine policies shows that although proponents employ the rhetoric of science, the studies underlying the policy are often of low quality, and do not substantiate officials’ claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated.”[8]

In her investigative report, “The Emerging Risks of Live Virus and Virus Vectored Vaccines,” Barbara Lo Fisher noted that the attenuated virus in the flu vaccine can shed and infect others for months after vaccination. Both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated are at risk. The CDC acknowledges this risk and warns “Persons who care for severely immunosuppressed persons who require a protective environment should not receive LAIV, or should avoid contact with such persons for 7 days after receipt, given the theoretical risk for transmission of the live attenuated vaccine virus.”[9]

Dr. David Brownstein has noted that as far back as 1999, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported increased risks of febrile disorders greater than placebo associated with the live vaccine.[10] According to the FDA’s literature on FluMist, the vaccine was not studied for immunocompromised individuals (yet was still administered to them), and has been associated with acute allergic reactions, asthma, Guillian-Barre, and a high rate of hospitalizations among children under 24 months – largely due to upper respiratory tract infections. Other adverse effects include pericarditis, congenital and genetic disorders, mitochondrial encephalomyopathy or Leigh Syndrome, meningitis, and others.[11] Given this litany of vaccine dangers, it is highly unlikely the vaccine was removed simply for ineffectiveness. Yet when has the CDC ever been truthful with the public?

A recent survey conducted by the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital found that nearly half of parents believe the flu shot made children more susceptible for infection. An additional 28 percent of parents did not trust the vaccine was as safe as health officials and doctors claim.[12]

The survey should not come as a surprise. Empirical evidence based upon personal experience should carry equal weight to a paper published in medical journal. It is very common to hear family and friends describe how rotten and sick they felt after receiving a flu shot, or how they came down with flu-like symptoms shortly thereafter. Every vaccination weakens the body’s immune system. A Dutch study out of Erasmus Medical Center compared virus-specific CD8+ T cells in children who were vaccinated and unvaccinated. The researchers found that although the seasonal influenza vaccine showed effectiveness, it “hampers the development of virus-specific T cell responses.[13] The consequence is that vaccinated children can be more prone to respiratory infections by any one of over a hundred other viruses that present flu-like symptoms.

An earlier study confirms the Dutch finding. To date there is only one gold standard clinical trial with the flu vaccine that compares vaccinated vs. unvaccinated, and it is not good news for the CDC and the vaccine makers. This Hong Kong funded double-blind placebo controlled study following the health conditions of vaccinated and unvaccinated children between the ages of 6-15 years for 272 days. The trial concluded the flu vaccine holds no health benefits. In fact, those vaccinated with the flu virus were observed to have a 550% higher risk of contracting non-flu virus respiratory infections. Among the vaccinated children, there were 116 flu cases compared to 88 among the unvaccinated; there were 487 other non-influenza virus infections, including rhinovirus, coxsackie, echovirus and others, among the vaccinated versus 88 with the unvaccinated. This single study alone poses a scientifically sound warning and rationale for avoiding the vaccine.[14]

It should be noted that there are approximately 200 distinct viruses that are misdiagnosed as influenza and produce flu-like symptoms. These organisms don’t magically appear during fall and winter – they are always among us. Nevertheless we are more susceptible to flu-like infections during the colder months when there are fewer daylight hours.

In a Canadian study led by Dr. Danuta Skowronski, individuals with a history of receiving consecutive seasonal flu shots over several years had an increased risk of becoming infected with H1N1 swine flu. Skowronski commented on his findings that “policy makers have not yet had a chance to fully digest them [the study’s conclusions] or understand the implications.” He continued, “Who knows, frankly? The wise man knows he knows nothing when it comes to influenza, so you always have to be cautious in speculating.”[15]

At their best, flu vaccines remain around 50% effective according to official health statements. Annually the CDC touts public relations message that its seasonal vaccine will be 60% effective; however, the vaccine repeatedly falls short. Records show the flu vaccine has never reached that level of accuracy. Last year’s vaccine was one of the worst on record. The CDC lowered its originally 60% efficacy down to 37% after the flu season was underway. But a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated it was only 10% effective because it is believed the H3N2 targeted strain had mutated. The World Health Organization’s predictions for 2014-2015 flu strains were also a bust. The match was such a failure that the CDC was forced to warn the American public that the vaccine was only 23% effective.[16] Given that the 2012-2013 flu season was only 27% effective for the 65 years-plus age group, predictive methodologies to determine which flu strains emerge during any given influenza season have more in common with medieval divination than sound science. For the 1992-1993 and 1997-1998 seasons, the vaccine concoction of flu strains was only 16% effective. Katherine Severyn, who monitors the actual WHO predictions and compares them with CDC claims has stated that, “depending upon the study cited, [flu] vaccine efficacy actually ranges from a low of 0%.” [17]

The development and promotion of the influenza vaccine was never completely about protecting the public. It has been the least popular vaccine in the US including among healthcare workers. Instead, similar to the mumps vaccine in the MMR, it has been the cash cow for vaccine makers. Determining the actual severity of any given flu season is burdened by federal intentional confusion to mislead the public. The CDC’s first line of propaganda defense to enforce seasonal flu shots is to exaggerate flu infections as the cause of preventable deaths. However, validating this claim is near impossible because the CDC does not differentiate deaths caused by influenza infection and deaths due to pneumonia. On its website the CDC has stretched its imagination more than ever by claiming 80,000 people died from flu infections last year. The agency would have us believe none of these 10s of 1000s were vaccinated. However, the CDC makes no differentiation between deaths from flu and pneumonia; instead, both infections are lumped together. The large majority of these were pneumonia deaths of elderly patients. Yet in any given year, only 3-18% of suspected influenza infections actually test positive for a Type A or B influenza strain.[18]

Dr. Martin Meltzer, a CDC expert in health economics, has stated “almost nobody dies of the flu” and “deaths [are] associated with flu, but not necessarily caused by flu.”[19]

One particularly compelling 2005 study was carried out by scientists at the federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Not only did the study indicate that the flu vaccine did nothing to prevent deaths from influenza among seniors, but that flu mortality rates increased as a greater percentage of seniors received the shot.[20]

After the release of the study, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson covered the findings in a CBS News segment. Attkisson interviewed the only co-author of the study who was not affiliated with the NIH, Dr. Tom Reichert, who stated that the research team revisited the data several times, but that no matter how they analyzed the “incendiary material”, the conclusion was clear: flu shots don’t improve mortality rates.[21]

The other good news is that Americans are gradually losing their confidence in the CDC. According to National Consumers League poll, over two-thirds of Americans believe vaccines cause autism, which the CDC categorically denies.[22] Almost two months after the media reported on the revelations by a CDC whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, who exposed the CDC cover up of a vaccine-autism connection with the MMR vaccine, a CBS News poll showed public approval of the CDC nosedived to 37%, down from 60% the previous year. Vaccine apologists and the major media claim this large decrease is due to the CDC’s dismal handling of the Ebola crisis; however, Thompson’s whistleblowing received over 750 million Twitter impressions indicating that the debate over vaccine efficacy and safety is far more on the public’s mind.[23] Positive endorsement of the CDC would plummet further if the public knew the full extent of CDC officials lying to Congress and their conspiracy to commit medical fraud for over a dozen years.

Imagine the tens of thousands of children and families who would have been saved from life-long neurological damage and immeasurable suffering if the CDC was not indebted to protecting the toxic products of the pharmaceutical industry and was serving the health and well-being of American children? And we can begin to further dismantle this citadel of despotic medical fascism by simply refusing the flu vaccine and protecting ourselves by adopting a healthier lifestyle during the flu season.

Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries. Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on nutrition and natural health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including Autism: Made in the USA, War on Health: The FDA’s Cult of Tyranny and Silent Epidemic: The Untold Story of Vaccination.

Prepare Yourselves for Category Six Superstorms

Prepare Yourselves for Category Six Superstorms

-By Gary NullThe year 2017 was a record-breaking year for extreme weather and environmental catastrophes since records started to be kept in the 19th century. The Arctic experienced temperatures up to 70 degree F above normal. Many countries were baked in unusual heatwaves killing thousands. Incidents of drought, extreme typhoons in the Pacific and hurricanes in the Atlantic, flash floods, and wildfires appeared daily in international news headlines. As recent as 2014, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) , following an analysis of NASA satellite footage of carbon dioxide movement around the planet, concluded that our warming planet has entered “unchartered territory at frightening speed.” But 2017 was also the year when the statistical figures came in for 2016. The WMO reported that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere rose at record speed. Currently CO2 is at its highest level in 800,000 years. If anyone holds any doubts that climate change is a hoax, a fictional conspiracy or fantasy, 2017 should have been wake up call to the most obstinate denialist. Now in 2018 new record breaking extreme events, including two surprise hurricanes that razed the Carolinas, the Florida panhandle and much of Alabama and Georgia, should reinforce convictions that the days of normal weather have ended. For over a decade scientists have warned about our current days of extreme weather events but mainstream media continues to undermine scientists’ warnings and spews newspeak in lock-step with Washington for the sake of political correctness. However for those who jumped on the bandwagon years ago when atmospheric and geological scientists voiced serious concerns about global warming and their dire predictions, it was a year with no huge surprises, except for the rapid acceleration of warming trends.

Yet even after record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires and superstorms, climate change denialism continues to prevail across the US. Aside of Trump’s recent back pedaling on previous delusions that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese, he still allows the world’s largest polluters off the hook by rolling back regulations that set at least some limits on greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution of the environment. During Trump’s recent interview on 60 Minutes, he acknowledged the reality of climate change. But Trump stopped there. He continues to perpetuate corporate and right-wing propaganda and conspiratorial paranoia that the verdict is unsettled whether humans are the cause. Our soothsayer-in-chief claims it will all change. If there are no hurricanes next season, surely Trump will take credit for it. All will improve and there is nothing but progress and prosperity ahead regardless of how rapidly Trump’s policies bring our species closer towards extinction. Our ability to reverse any climate trends will require far more than the next technological invention. It also demands a functional government, but that remains too taboo for Washington and other nations addicted to the capitalist growth through fossil fuels mythology.

In the meantime, victims from the recent Florence and Michael hurricanes are experiencing a different reality outside the phantasmagorical bubble that now hovers around the White House compound. Hurricane Michael was the third strongest superstorm to strike the US mainland. Mexico Beach and Panama City on the Florida panhandle were demolished. To worsen matters the regions of Florida, Alabama and Georgia where Michael was most fierce are already among the US’ poorest. Many of the residents are too economically poor to stock up on food and other rations to carry them through the painful ordeal even if they had wanted.

Hurricane Michael adds to the growing number of case studies for the new reality facing the Atlantic states. The superstorm’s rainfall is estimated to have been the worst in US history and the most devastating storm to hit Houston. Nineteen trillion gallons of water. For five days, the “capitol” of America’s fossil fuel industry was flooded with torrential rains and wave surges, shutting down and damaging oil refineries and chemical plants along Texas’ eastern coast. Over one million pounds of toxic pollutants flooded the surrounding environment and greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Such events fall outside the realm of computerized simulations and cannot be accurately included in predictive climate models. For this reason, scientific conclusions are often far more conservative than the actual state of the planet.

The severity of Michael resulted from a combination of global warming conditions that are going to accelerate more rapidly in the years, decades, ahead. In addition to a tiny low pressure system along the Yucatan peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico’s water was up to 4 degrees F above normal. In the region off of Florida, temperatures were up to 8 degrees F warmer. Hurricanes weaken when the deeper water pulled into its vortex is colder. However, superstorms build speed and become stronger when less cold water is being drawn. Writing for the New York Times, Harvey Fountain summarized the triple threat exhibited by Michael that made it far more devastating along the Florida panhandle to the surprise of atmospheric and oceanic scientists. “More rain in larger storms on rising seas,” writes Fountain, is the new recipe that will assure that more Michaels will be visiting the Atlantic coastal states and more frequently in the future.

It will be a long time before life is restored to the towns and families in Michael’s path. If ever. A year later, neighborhoods and towns outside Houston and Galveston are still struggling after Category 4 Hurricane Harvey drowned the Texas coastline during Trump’s watch. Texas reporters have cataloged over one hundred toxic chemical releases. One chemical plant in Baytown east of Houston spilled half a billion gallons of industrial wastewater, including benzene, butadiene and other known human carcinogens. Many tons of other industrial chemicals were also released throughout Houston’s petrochemical corridor into surrounding neighborhoods. The government failed to evacuate residents most exposed to life-threatening levels of high toxic substances. Texas Governor Greg Abbott decreed the industrial pollution was an “act of God” and therefore it could be forgiven. The Houston Chronicle reported that Texas officials completely ignored the release of dioxin, ranked as one of the most dangerous chemicals for human health by the World Health Organization. The EPA did send a single mobile air-monitoring van, but that was almost a week after the hurricane passed.

When a Category 4 or 5 hurricane hits land, we are fully aware of the devastation left in its wake. Hourly we observe images of flooding, submerged cars, blown or collapsed roofs, snapped trees on the news and weather channels. But these disturbing images don’t show the invisible feedback mechanisms due to humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to these superstorms’ severity and destructive potential. Nor extreme storms’ feedback loops that further contribute to the acceleration of climate change. Extreme hurricanes and typhoons create updrafts lifting moisture into the stratosphere, which begins between 8-12 miles above the Earth’s surface (higher along the equator). Not only does this moisture reduce the ozone layer, which resides in the lower stratosphere, it also carries water vapor into this higher atmospheric zone, which otherwise has very little, and it remains there longer. The largest percentage of greenhouse gases emissions our civilization releases reside in the troposphere, the layer immediately above our heads. But any gases that reach above this level will linger far longer and thereby advance the warming of the planet.

We need to get over the idea that extreme superstorms like Florence and Michael are “natural disasters” or a consequence of an imaginary natural cycle. Since 1970, the frequency of superstorms has doubled. Kerry Emanuel is an MIT atmospheric scientist who is recognized as an international expert on superstorms. To rid ourselves of the false opinion that these record-breaking climate events are simply natural, Emanuel says, “The phrase ‘natural disaster’ is an attempt to lay blame where blame really doesn’t rest.” It suggests that not only are we as individuals helpless, but so are our governments and international institutions incapable of doing anything to lessen the threat of future life-threatening climate-related catastrophes. But according to over 95% of the world’s climate scientists, this belief is patently wrong.

There were a record number of devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean during the 2017 storm season. Hurricane Irma, which plummeted Puerto Rico into darkness, was the strongest tropical storm in the Caribbean on record. George Washington University estimates that 3,000 Puerto Ricans died. As of October 2018, 1.8 million still don’t have electricity. Category 4 Hurricane Harvey leveled Houston with rising sea levels combined with the most rain dumped at any single time during a single storm in US history — five feet! The capitol of America’s oil industry had more rain in a week than it usually gets in a year. The NOAA estimated the bill of damage after Harvey would be $125 billion, the second most costly storm after Katrina at $161 billion. A significant proportion was uninsured losses. The cost of Hurricane Michael will not be known until after all the structural damage and affected states’ loss in revenues are taken into account, including the demolition of Alabama’s and Georgia’s cotton and pecan crops. Early estimates from AcuWeather report it will be over $30 billion. According to the USDA, only about 15 percent of Georgia’s cotton crop and 30 percent of vegetables were harvested before the storm struck. “We lost most of this year’s (pecan) crop plus tens of thousands of acres of orchards,” wrote Jeffrey Dorfman at University of Georgia’s agricultural school, “that will take a decade to replace.” In the meanwhile, Florida lost at least 3 million acres of commercial timber besides other agricultural commodities such as offshore shellfish aquaculture, cotton, peanuts and poultry. And Alabama, one of the nation’s poorest states, relies heavily upon its cotton industry. CNBC reported 2018 was expected to be “a record high yield.” But only about 10 percent had been harvested and a million unharvested bales are estimated to have been destroyed.

If the US government’s response to hurricanes Maria in Puerto Rico, Harvey and Katrina are any indication of what the victims of Florence and Michael can expect, they should be prepared for a rude awakening. Trump’s mobilization of FEMA and supply of aid to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico was dreadful. Reports from both NPR and PBS have concluded that Trump’s rhetoric for his Administration’s “incredible, unsung success” in handling Maria’s aftermath was at best largely exaggerated. In fact, after reviewing “hundreds of internal documents” the news agencies determined Trump’s FEMA was in chaos.

Months after Harvey, tens of thousands of greater Houston and Galveston residents remained homeless. year later one out of five damaged apartments remain unrestored. Many homes are empty with for sale or rent signs or simply abandoned. The Houstonian Magazine reported that 10 months after the deluge, dioxin in water near waste pits were still abnormally high at near 70,000 parts per trillion. The EPA dictates immediate cleanups for 30 parts per trillion and higher of dioxin spillage.

And here is the take home lesson. It only requires a couple hours for a superstorm in our new climate era to decimate a town, city, farm, industry and entire economy, but it can take years for a full recovery. However, do we have the luxury of years before another Category 3, 4 or 5 storm razes what has been rebuilt? Climate scientists voice in unison a unanimous “no.” Speaking on Good Morning America, the Texas governor told viewers, “People need to understand this is not going to be a short-term project. This is going to be a multi-year project for Texas to be able to dig out of this catastrophe.” Climate change and future storms aren’t going to wait for the feds or states to get back on a firm footing. Superstorms destroy not only homes, buildings and infrastructure; they also damage the very essential needs for survival such as water resources, utilities, transportation, food security and jobs. There is also the fear of dramatic soil erosion on farms extreme rainfall and floods that remove the organic medium enabling plants to grow and absorb CO2. This will have a direct impact upon future agricultural yields. And climate change and its associated catastrophic weather and environmental events are accelerating exponentially and faster than expect. During a recent conversation with Dr. Paul Beckwith at the University of Ottawa’s Laboratory of Paleoclimateology, an expert in tropical storms, he stated that superstorms are behaving more erratic and unpredictably. This was certainly the case for each of the hurricanes being discussed. This is the harsh truth people must learn to accept and adjust their lives to. And according to Beckwith, we must be prepared to see beyond the overly conservative estimates released by the IPCC. The actual state of climate change is far more scary.

Although the main media networks portrayed the 2017-2018 hurricane seasons as shocking, it is perfectly consistent with scientists’ warnings about the planet’s warming trends. Warmer oceans, combined with rising winds, changing jet streams, and hotter air, is the recipe for larger and more powerful storms. A couple of months after Hurricane Harvey, studies found that global warming significantly increased the odds for Harvey’s record heavy rains. Asked whether we will experience a change in cyclone-like storms in the future, Professor Emanuel, stated, “we expect that Category 3, 4, and 5 storms will become more frequent globally as the climate warms…. Per-storm losses of life and property will rise.”

Our new age of superstorms has also started a debate among scientists whether an additional Category 6 designation is warranted. If we are fearful of another Harvey or Michael hitting Miami-Dade County’s population of 2.7 million citizens, imagine the likes of Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines in 2013. Haiyan is the highest speed hurricane, at 195 mph, to have made landfall on record. The storm was responsible for the death of over 5,000 Filipinos and displaced an additional 4 million. The strength of the storm is attributed to only a single degree warmer ocean temperature than normal. And the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean now far exceed that.

Depending upon where you live, the harsh realities of climate change will be felt differently. American coastlines, especially along the Atlantic seaboard from the Florida Keys to Boston, will experience the brunt of sea level rises. All the major cities dotted along the Atlantic are sitting ducks for extreme storms, ocean surges and increased flooding. And no major concerted effort is being made to prevent or lessen any of the impacts of higher category storms and rising tides. It is now critical to vote only for legislators who have a scientific understanding of the Anthropogene Age humanity has entered rather instead of clutching to religious superstitions to deny global warming is real. Until then, the best solution our Climate Denier in Chief staring clueless at his empty desk in the Oval Office can offer is, “You’re on your own now. Good luck chump, and God bless.”

The US-Israeli-Saudi alliance and what it means for the future of the middle east

Prof. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and the director of the Middle East Institute at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. He also serves as the editor of the Journal of Palestinian Studies. With a Palestinian heritage, he is world renown as an historian specializing in the history of national identity in the Middle East and the role of foreign powers in the region. He has served as the president of the American Committee on Jerusalem, now known as the American Task force in Palestine, and has appeared on many notable programs such as The News Hour, Charlie Rose, Morning Edition and Nightline. Prof. Khalidi holds a bachelor degree from Yale and received his doctorate at Oxford University. In the past he has taught at the American University in Beirut, University of Chicago and Georgetown and has written many important books on Empire and the Palestinian struggle. His forthcoming book is “The Hundred Years War on Palestine.”

Science and Spiritual practices -- the benefits of spirituality on our physical and mental health.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a British biochemist and plant physiologist who has experimented with innovative field theory in plants and animals, including humans, to account for the causative formation of the deeper structures of biological development and collective consciousness. He has been a fellow at Cambridge University, a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard and a Research Fellow of he British Royal Society. His research has included efforts to reach a greater understanding of memory, perception, cognition and the debate over consciousness. Over the past several decades Rupert developed his theory of morphic resonance and morphogenic fields. Dr. Sheldrake has written extensively on morphogenic theory since the publication “A New Science in Life “in 1981. His most recent book is "Science and Spiritual Practice: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains and Health," which takes a scientific look at religion and the human ideas and practices that it is based on. His website is Sheldrake.org